DailyDirt: Big Brother Ads

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The year 1984 didn't quite turn out the way the book did, but we're already living in a world where there are ubiquitous cameras tracking our every move. But it's not necessarily the government behind the cameras -- a lot of cameras are for private security and... possibly advertisers. Here are a few stories that might make you want to dress up like the Unabomber when you go out.

Why wait?

Data protection?

A serious question: could face recognition and *very* personalized ads run afoul of data protection acts here, there and everywhere? I have a suspicion that here in .dk all it would take to be exempted was a single letter to the Ministry of the Interior and noone could legally ID me (as in "Oh, this is grumpy, serve up some Snow White") in public to serve ads, but we have pretty strict protections in place. How will the Union react?

Re: Ads and Advertisers

It would be somewhat surprising if that were really true... marketing/advertising is a part of nearly every company's budget, but it shouldn't add up to be more than the overall budgets across all industries. It wouldn't be surprising, though, if ad companies were more profitable than the companies they work for -- which could lead to the impression that the ad business is bigger/better....

Re: Data protection?

Grumpy, it seems doubtful that an advertiser would use a *billboard* to advertise to a single individual. So while one of these fancy face recognition billboards could tell that you're standing in front of it, the ad inventory would only be able to display ads targeted at your demographic (not you personally).

Toll ways and RFID

At least in Australia, we have tollways, (roads you have to pay to travel on), to save having to stop and pay money you can get an RFID chip for your car, so you are 'scanned' every time you pass a specific point, to get the chip you have to provide your name, age, and address (your ID), so the system knows when you are on the tollway, it would be easy to calculate where you are on the freeway and focus ads specific for you.